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| billyweeds |
 Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 11:31 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 20618
Location: New York City
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| I saw Taking Off when it first came out and still remember vividly how much I disliked it. Vague, formless, annoyingly trendy, and ineptly acted, it forever damaged my opinion of Milos Forman (whose work I have never loved anyway but never disliked as intensely as Taking Off). |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:36 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Reasons Why Biofuels Are A Bad Idea
1. They take more energy per unit to create than they provide (this has been known for a while)
2. They disrupt basic food supplies for many people living at a subsistence level, and may even encourage destruction of forests in some places as the land is converted to cultivation of more profitable biofuel crops
3. Sister Wakasa has been reading the book Day of the Triffids (we both saw the movie years ago,; the backstory is significantly different), and the triffids are actually "grown" for their oil. (There's a cold war attack that goes wrong, and the triffids take advantage of the opening it creates.)
Biofuels - that bite back. |
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 4:49 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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Rod wrote: Fiona Shaw's Grand Guignol performance is something else.
It certainly was. I thought she absolutely stole the film. It makes you look at Harry Potter's aunt a bit differently. |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| marantzo |
| Posted: Sun Feb 10, 2008 5:11 pm |
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| Rod, Apparently the men in charge insisted in cutting 30 minutes from The Black Dahlia and that butchered it. Elroy saw the rough cut and praised it. When he saw the final cut he said it was indecipherable, which it was. You were right on, when you wrote that it had moments of brilliance and moments of crap (or somethoing like that). That's just how I felt. What a shame that it turned out that way. maybe there will be a director's cut that will redeem the film. |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Mon Feb 11, 2008 6:52 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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I went into Cria Cuervos so cold, I even had no idea what the the title meant. Turns out that it's a wonderful film by Carlos Saura, made in the dying days of Franco's rule. The title refers to a proverb, "raise ravens, and they'll pluck your eyes out." Essentially, you reap what you sow.
But there are echoes of other meanings, as the film is literally about raising children, three orphaned sisters. And indeed many see the film as a political allegory of late-Franco Spain. The middle child is played by Ana Torrent, the sad doe-eyed girl who was in Victor Erice's 1973 The Spirit of the Beehive a couple years before. The territory is similar, examining the legacy of Spanish fascism on one family, as seen through the eyes of a child. And by extension these two films are forerunners of Pan's Labyrinth.
In Cria Cuervos, the children are the young daughters of a military man, who even fought with the Germans on the Russian front. The film focuses on how the daughters deal with being orphaned and left in the care of their aunt. While it all happens on the small scale of a family drama, it wonderfully captures the fantasy and fears of a young girl growing up among death and uncertainty.
Some marvelous moments include Ana Torrant singing along with the pop-disco tune Porque Te Vas, an empty swimming pool, and a game of hide-and-go-seek. It's refreshing how the film shies away from big flourishes and instead lets the small moments accumulate.
I think I'm going to re-watch Spirit of the Beehive tonight |
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Killing your enemies, if it's done badly, increases their number. |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:20 am |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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| Marilyn |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:59 am |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 8210
Location: Skokie (not a bad movie, btw)
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| Nancy |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:15 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
Posts: 4607
Location: Norman, OK
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lady wakasa wrote: The Lubitsch musicals box set has been officially released!
Gosh, that's tempting. Of course, so is the Melies collection, the complete Ford at Fox, and....... |
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"All in all, it's just another feather in the fan."
Isaacism, 2009 |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 3:39 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
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Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Oh, god, I'd kill for the Fox at Ford - although you can get "sub-boxes" of that, too (like the silents).
And I saw a Shaw Brothers box, too, that I want...
There's too much out there. >%^< |
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| Joe Vitus |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:57 pm |
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Joined: 20 May 2004
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Location: Houston
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| I'm reminded of Mae West's joke about the director who's work resembled Lubitsch. "In fact, they called him Son of Lubitsch...or at least, that's what it sounde like." |
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| Syd |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:18 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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Eight disks but only four movies mentioned. What's on the other disks? |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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| lady wakasa |
| Posted: Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:07 pm |
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Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 5911
Location: Beyond the Blue Horizon
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Syd wrote:
Eight disks but only four movies mentioned. What's on the other disks?
Four disks, not eight. Eight is the series number (a la Criterion release spine numbers). |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:05 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
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Location: Shanghai
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lady wakasa wrote:
Four disks, not eight. Eight is the series number (a la Criterion release spine numbers).
These are part of the Eclipse series of low-budget box sets put out by Criterion.
So they have have few extras.
These Lubitsch musicals made stars of Maurice Chevalier & Jeanette MacDonald, with Claudette Colbert thrown into the mix.
I'm looking forward to them |
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| gromit |
| Posted: Wed Feb 13, 2008 4:51 am |
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Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 9016
Location: Shanghai
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As for a new genre forum, I'd be in favor of Eatsern European cinema. There's the current breakthroughs from Romania which are worthy of discussion (and being seen). While Second Run has put out a marvelous series of Eastern European films. I'd highly rec Mother Joan of the Angels (Poland) and The Cremator (Czech), among others.
Doubt this idea will take here though.
I can see maybe an Asian cinema forum, though I don't watch much in that realm.
Actually I wish we'd split the Couch forum into two parts: non-current American films and Int'l/silent films. I think we'd get better and hopefully more sustained discussions that way. |
Last edited by gromit on Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:50 am; edited 1 time in total
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| Syd |
| Posted: Fri Feb 15, 2008 12:43 am |
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Site Admin
Joined: 21 May 2004
Posts: 12944
Location: Norman, Oklahoma
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The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a bit like a Western directed by Terrence Malick crossed with narration from the History Channel. Very slow moving and almost three hours long, and about 40 minutes too long. It's achingly beautiful, with two fine performances in the leads and good but overshadowed performances in support, including Sam Shepard as Frank James (about 25 years too old for the part), Sam Rockwell as Charley Ford, and Paul Schneider as Dick Liddil. The cinematographer is the great Roger Deakins, who also was the cinematographer for No Country for Old Men, and earlier for Mountains of the Moon, Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and The Shawshank Redemption. Some of the interiors are made to look like 19th century sepia-toned photographs. There's a lot of attention to detail.
To tell the truth, Jesse James comes across like a sociopath (although a good father) and charming paranoid (although people are conspiring against them), and his assassination a public service, but that's not how it's seen in retrospect. There's also a lot more to Robert Ford than cowardice although he's a bit off his rocker himself. Their interplay is fascinating, especially in the scene where Jesse humiliates Robert in from of Jesse's family and Robert's brother, setting off the betrayal.
Flawed but highly recommended. See it on as large a screen as possible. |
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Rocky Laocoon foretold of Troy's doom, only to find snaky water. They pulled him in and Rocky can't swim. Now Rocky wishes he were an otter! |
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